Marseille winger Hatem Ben Arfa threatens to quit football if Newcastle United move isn’t granted
Olympique de Marseille winger Hatem Ben Arfa is reportedly ready to quit football if the club don’t grant him the chance to move to Newcastle United, a report in L'Equipe suggests.
OM president Jean-Claude Dassier announced on Thursday evening that Ben Arfa’s future lies at Stade Velodrome, but after receiving little game-time under Didier Deschamps last season, the France international would seem to have other plans.
The Magpies have reportedly made their interest in the player known to les Phoceens’ board. It is said that they offered to take the 23-year-old on a loan basis with an option to buy at the end of the season, though Dassier is said to have dismissed this offer as unacceptable.
Ben Arfa would appear to have his heart set on a move, and is ready to gamble his own career on the switch.
"I shall never return here," he is rumoured to have said when leaving Marseille's training ground on Thursday.
The Parisian-born player has taken such a risk before. In order to push through his move from Olympique Lyonnais to OM, he simply walked out of Lyon’s pre-season training and began working with Marseille instead, having not had consent from his previous club.
UPDATE 11:18 BST: La Provence has reported that Ben Arfa has missed Friday morning’s training session at OM’s Commanderie training ground and will not be considered to start Saturday’s clash in Valenciennes
Denilson
Nicklas Bendtner
Cesc Fabregas
Gael Clichy
Alex Song
Jack Wilshere
Aaron Ramsey
Kieran Gibbs
All homegrown players.
“The home grown rule is all artificial. From 1966 to 1996 this country won absolutely nothing. England won nothing and they had not one foreign player [in the league]. How has it changed?”
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